Day 11

“But Jesus turned away from Peter and said to him, Get behind Me, Satan! You are in My way [an offense and a hindrance and a snare to Me]; for you are minding what partakes not of the nature and quality of God, but of men.”

– Matthew 16:23

Christ was a good example when it came to temptation. Like Jesus, we can’t be all willy nilly with it. When we have a weakness or tendency to fall into a particular sin, we can’t mess around. If we don’t deal with it fiercely, it will deal fiercely with us. Slowly, but surely, it will take over and eventually destroy our lives. We’ve got to nail it to the cross by depriving it of our participation! Nail it to the cross by denying it any access to our lives!

By now, most of us know the ideal circumstances under which we give in to sin, so let’s deny it access by denying the opportunity of those circumstances in the first place. Jesus wasn’t nailing Himself to the cross. He was nailing our sins in the hope that we would do the same. Sin is not worth the cost of its participation. Follow along with this parallel of Matthew 27:21-25. It’s a simple dialogue between us and God when we’re dealing with temptation.

“God, I have a really strong desire to give in to temptation, but my spirit wants to do your will. So which of the two should I do, God?”

“Do the right thing,” He answered.

”What should I do then, with these desires, this flesh that’s pulling me away from You?”

God answered, “Crucify it! Nail it to the cross!”

”But God, I can’t let it go! I want it so bad!” But God only shouted louder, “Crucify it! Die to your flesh and nail it to the cross!”

So I saw that I wasn’t getting anywhere in my reasoning with God, but instead the temptation was growing worse. I plead the blood of Jesus over myself.

“I am innocent of this sin, God, by your Son’s blood. I’m free from it! Now it’s your responsibility! Take this away from me Holy Spirit!”

Then I did the right thing and handed my sin over to be crucified.

So how do we really die to our flesh? We must first recognize our weakness and avoid temptation out of our love for Christ! Jesus said, “When temptation comes, run!” Run from any setting that enables you to sin. Literally, get up and move yourself away from it and stay away from it!

When we die to sin like this, the Word says the Holy Spirit, who raised Christ from the dead, will breathe new life into our “dead” flesh (Romans 8:11). In other words, we give up satisfying our desires the way we want, which opens the door to allow Him to satisfy them the way He wants, the way He originally intended to.

Pursue your purpose in Him,

Anthony B.